a town of Puglia in Italy, occupying part of the site of the ancient Canusium. The old city was founded by Diomede, according to Strabo. It afterwards became a Roman colony, and one of the most considerable cities of this part of Italy for extent, population, and magnificence in building. The era of Trajan seems to have been that of its greatest splendour; but this pomp only served to mark it as a capital object for the avarice and fury of the Barbarians. Genecric, Totila, and Autharia, treated it with extreme cruelty. The deplorable state to which this province was reduced in 590 is concisely but strongly painted by Gregory the Great, in these terms: "On every side we hear groans! on every side we behold crowds of mourners, cities burnt, castles raised to the ground, countries laid waste, provinces become deserts, some citizens led away captives, and others humanly massacred." No town in Puglia suffered more than Canosa from the outrages of the Saracens; the contests between the Greeks and Normans increased the measure of its woes, which was filled by a conflagration that happened when it was stormed by duke Robert. In 1090, it was assigned, by agreement, to Bohemund prince of Antioch, who died here in 1111. Under the reign of Ferdinand the Third, this estate belonged to the Grimaldis. On their forfeiture, the Affaititi acquired it, and still retain the title of marquis, though the Capeci are the proprietors of the fief.

The ancient city stood in a plain between the hills and the river Ofanto, and covered a large tract of ground. Many brick monuments, though degraded and stripped of their marble casing, still attest its ancient grandeur. Among them may be traced the fragments of aqueducts, tombs, amphitheatre baths, military columns, and two triumphal arches, which, by their position, seem to have been two city gates. The present town stands above, on the foundations of the old citadel, and is a most pitiful remnant of so great a city, not containing above three hundred houses. The church of St Sabinus, built, as is said, in the fifth century, is now without the inclosure. It is astonishing, that any part of this ancient cathedral should have withstood so many calamities. Its altars and pavements are rich in marbles; and in a small court adjoining, under an octagonal cupola, is the mausoleum of Bohemund, adorned in a minute Gothic style.